The ONE Thing

Three of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of The ONE Thing pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.

1. Ask the Focusing Question every day: "What's the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?" Anchor it to a timeframe (right now, today, this week, this year) and use it for both your big-picture goal and your very next action.
2. Reject the lie that everything matters equally. Apply an extreme version of the 80/20 rule to turn a long to-do list into a short 'success list' built around the vital few, until you're left with a single lead task.
3. Stop multitasking. Switching between tasks bleeds time and accuracy through constant 'switching costs'; give your ONE Thing undivided attention instead.

The other 4 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 9 chapters

The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.

1. Go Small: The Surprising Power of One
2. The Domino Effect: How One Task Topples the Rest
3. The Six Lies That Mislead and Derail Us
4. Multitasking Is a Lie, and Willpower Runs Out
5. Counterbalance, Not Balance
6. The Focusing Question
7. Goal Setting to the Now
8. Time Blocking: Protect Your ONE Thing
9. The Three Commitments and the Four Thieves